Le 8 avril 2022, 30 personnes se retrouvent au  Brussels Podcast Festival pour participer à la présentation par  l'équipe de Circlo  du Podcast  “Les Défricheurs”. L’estrade au fond de la salle ne servira pas. Une trentaine de chaises sont disposées en cercle.   Au centre, 6 chaises accueilleront la conversation. L'équipe de Circlo invite les…

Chers amis de la Constellation

Voici un cadre d'autoévaluation pour stimuler les réponses locales face au coronavirus. Vous voulez bien le tester pour vous mêmes, en famille ou avec n'importe quel groupe? Aussi, ppouvez vous le partager avec vos autorités publiques, afin qu'ils voient le potentiel des réponses locales face à ce nouveau défi? Merci de poster votre expérience ici. Ensemble nous surmonterons le défi posé par le coronavirus!

Dear Constellation Friends

Attached is a proposed Self Assessment framework for your perusal. Do try it individually, with your family and with other groups. Also, share it with public authorities to get their buy in and support! Do post your experience with it here! Coronavirus_%20let%20us%20do%20our%20part%21.pdf

Dear Friends

At the end of a year marked by calls for action on the climate emergency, I am sending you this note on the meaning of Now, written with Isabelle Giraldo of Emergences.

Happy New Year 2020

Jean-Louis

Right now?

"Act Now! The end of the world is nearby! Collapse is already upon us, and with it its train of disaster!" Doesn't this message bear a striking resemblance to the message about AIDS that was repeated over and over…

En ce froid dimanche soir, nous préparons les funérailles de papa prévues pour le mercredi suivant. Nous voilà, ma belle-mère, ma soeur avec son mari, mon épouse et moi réunis autour du diacre Jos dans le bureau de la paroisse Saint-Michel à Keerbergen.  Je n'avais pas participé à la préparation d’une cérémonie catholique depuis plus de vingt ans. J’avais lu les directives pour préparer les obsèques et, franchement, j’étais un peu inquiet car je me demandais…

There we were, my stepmother, my sister with  her husband, me and my wife, gathered around Jos the deacon in the  Saint Michael’s parish office in Keerbergen. On this cold Sunday evening, we prepare for Dad’s funeral scheduled for the following Wednesday.  It had been a while since I actively participated in the preparation of a catholic ceremony. I had read the guidelines to prepare the funeral, and frankly, I was a bit concerned as I was wondering whether…

Samedi 1 décembre.

Qui est-ce que je vois à travers la fenêtre de la porte de la cuisine alors que je suis sur le point d’entrer chez mes parents ? Papa, qui fait la vaisselle ! Je suis partagé entre deux émotions : l'une, l'admiration pour mon père âgé de 95 ans qui est rentré à la maison deux jours auparavant, après deux mois d'hospitalisation pour un hématome sous-dural post-traumatique ! Et l’autre, l’anxiété et même un peu de colère, parce que papa ne suit pas la recommandation…

Saturday, December 1.  Whom do I see through the kitchen door window, while I am about to enter my parents’ home? My 95-year-old dad, washing dishes! I was torn between two impulses: one, admiration, as my dad had come back home just two days before, after two months of hospitalization for a post-traumatic subdural hematoma! And the other, anxiety and maybe a bout of anger, as my dad’s family and medical network had told him to only walk around with a helping hand nearby. …

October 22, Bandung. Pak Sonny takes the floor, visibly moved. In his address to about 70 participants  at the Global Learning Festival (GLF), he explains why he flew all the way from Papua to West Java. “Papua has known many programs to deal with AIDS, he says. They came and went. The one that stayed with us is SALT, because it made us understand what we could do on our own”. I cried. 6 years ago, a change in leadership  had dashed our hopes to support Papua…

Phayao, November 2017. “Let us go and support khun Moon,”says our friend Suwat to khun Saowanee, Anu and I. “He has stopped using chemicals on his land and has to deal with a lot of resistance from his fellow villagers.” Moon and his wife welcome us in front of their modest house. Lots of chicken run around among a luxuriant vegetation. In front of the house a fish pond opens the view toward a mountain range.…

When did we meet for the first time, I am not sure. Was it in 1998, when we discussed the impact of HIV on Health Reforms? It does not matter, as I feel that we know each other since and for eternity.

Professor John Rwomushana was instrumental in the development and the validation of the concept of local response to HIV.  UNAIDS knew since 1998 that people in Phayao had stopped the spread of HIV because they had taken ownership of the challenge through collective discussion,…

“Isn't there a shortcut? ” asks Ranga as with Marlou we visit the beautiful Moluccan Islands in East-Indonesia.

While more and more people in rich countries tend to connect with nature, with people and with self,  in poorer countries people lose those connections as they imagine  more…

Dear friends 

Suwatland and Suwat has inspired me for 25 years now. Anu and I spent a few days in Suwatland recenty. Anu, who works with me on "Let's Reconnect" took a set of videos which we will share over the next few weeks. Here is what Anu wrote as an intro:

"The home of Suwat is the place where JL wrote “What Makes Us Human?”. In a way it’s very fitting because Suwat really helped JL to understand the AIDS situation in Thailand in the beginning of 2000s. For some…

Dear Constellation Friends

As certain as every morning’s sunrise

is our…

Friends

For years I have experienced the power of the trust in others. During a recent bike trip I was on the receiving end of trust. Please read the blog post on the book's website. If you like it, do share it! 

Jean-Louis

When Arthur and Edward from Health Nest Uganda (HENU) picked me up at my hotel the day after our SALT visit to Katabi (see Ubuntu on the bus) they had exciting news. Both had independently started their day with the yoga exercises I had shared with the Katabi group! This was so encouraging that we repeated these exercises during the…

March 1, 2017

Do we  Europeans behave like the legendary frog? You know the story: the frog was living in a pond whose water was heating so slowly that it noticed nothing until it died in boiling water. Is our fixation on “the economy” so strong that we pay no attention to the fate of fellow human beings? Are we so mesmerized by the current US excesses that we leave unnoticed the gradual abandonment of our own values? Not long ago, I was proud to belong to Europe, a beacon of human…

https://what-makes-us-human.com/blog/our-blog/

je suis un être humain from Carlos Chapman on Vimeo.